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Southeast loggers cited for feeding, shooting at wolves

Posted: Wednesday, May 24, 2000

ANCHORAGE (AP) -- State fish and wildlife authorities have cited two people in a Southeast logging camp for hand-feeding a wolf and for shooting at a wolf that was hanging around a work site waiting for a handout.

Fish and Wildlife Protection troopers cited David Nordblad, 46, after seizing a photograph of him feeding a cookie to a wolf near the Shrimp Bay logging camp north of Ketchikan.

They cited Richard Barley, 41, for trying to shoot a wolf in one of the camp's work areas. Barley nicked the animal in the ear but did not otherwise harm it. Both citations were issued May 15, said Fish and Game spokeswoman Nancy Long.

Following the two citations, Fish and Game officials said Monday, they plan to step up education and enforcement efforts regarding feeding of wildlife.

Because of a wolf attack on a boy in Icy Bay in April, and now these two citations, Fish and Game officials have grown concerned that some Alaska wolves may have lost their fear of humans after getting handouts.

Fish and Game officials suspect that a collared wolf that attacked a 7-year-old boy in a logging camp along Icy Bay had been fed.

By state law, no one may intentionally feed a moose, bear, wolf, fox or wolverine or intentionally leave out human food or garbage that could attract those animals, Long said.

Shooting a wolf outside the normal wolf hunting season, which ends April 30 in most areas, is also illegal, she said.

''When you disregard that responsibility by feeding a wild animal, you are not only breaking the law, you are seriously endangering yourself, your neighbors and the animal,'' Fish and Game Commissioner Frank Rue said in a news release.

Operators of the Shrimp Bay camp have promised to educate its workers. According to Long, manager Lavarr Zieger has warned all camp residents about wildlife feeding laws and said the camp would issue a policy to fire employees caught feeding wildlife a second time.

Some loggers think as many as three wolves hanging around the Shrimp Bay camp are now used to being around humans, though no one has seen more than one wolf at a time, Long said.

One wolf in particular has been especially bold, Long said, nudging one person in the shoulder from behind and stealing lunches out of backpacks and the beds of pickups.